Marine Veteran ATC Saves Pilot After Navigation Failure and dangerous Fuel Crisis

Two Missed Approaches and Forty-Five Minutes of Fuel

On January 16, 2010, Atlanta Center controller Derek Bittman was working the Dallas sector when he was handed an aircraft with navigation problems. The pilot had already missed two approaches in low ceilings and fog and was running short of fuel. With the destination becoming increasingly difficult to reach, the pilot chose Rome, Georgia, for another attempt.

The Second Attempt Failed Too

The aircraft reached the Rome area but the pilot still could not find the airport. The remaining fuel was reported at about 45 minutes. The navigation problem was not limited to one display: the pilot was having trouble with both the glide-slope information on the VOR and the lateral CDI.

Turning the Center Controller Into the Approach

Bittman declared an emergency and separated the aircraft from other traffic so he could concentrate on it. He vectored N3011N toward the Rome VOR and used the approach plate to provide vertical guidance. Because the aircraft was being worked by an en-route center rather than an approach facility, the technique was outside the normal conditions in which such precision is provided.

The Runway Appeared at the Last Moment

Bittman also told the pilot about highways in the area in case the aircraft could not reach a runway. The controller continued the vectors until the pilot reported the runway in sight. The aircraft reached the ground safely. The fuel margin was essentially exhausted: the pilot ran out of fuel while taxiing to the ramp.

The controller's workload was significant, but the decisive problem was the aircraft's shrinking ability to navigate independently. The pilot could not obtain a reliable picture from the equipment he was using, and the weather had already made earlier approaches unsuccessful. The remaining fuel made a long search for another airport increasingly impractical.

Bittman used the Rome VOR as the reference for his vectors and used the published approach information to give the pilot vertical guidance. The technique effectively turned the en-route controller's radar vectors into an improvised precision-style approach. Bittman also warned the pilot about highways because a runway was no longer guaranteed.

Once the pilot saw the runway, the most dangerous part of the sequence was over, but the fuel margin was still extremely small. The aircraft landed and then exhausted its remaining fuel while taxiing toward the ramp. That final detail shows how close the fuel problem had become without requiring any speculation about how much usable fuel remained at each earlier stage.

Bittman's decision to split the sector gave him the time to work the emergency without having to divide his attention among the normal traffic. The NATCA account describes him using his military experience as part of the approach he developed for the aircraft.

The pilot's navigation equipment had deteriorated enough that the normal approach information was no longer dependable. That is why Bittman's vectors were paired with the approach plate rather than relying solely on the pilot's own navigation display.

This was plan B, one-one november.

“16, 2010, certified professional controller Derek Bittman stumbled across a particular situation that could have easily changed forever the life he had come to know so well.”

Accident facts

Chronology of the event

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